Sagada imposes P20 cultural fee for hanging coffins site visit after vlogger held human skull on camera and called it “Skulls of Pagans”

Sagada, Mountain Province – The once free-of-charge cultural site in Central Sagada, specifically the Paytokan Hanging Coffins, now requires a ₱20 cultural fee following a controversy that erupted after a social media influencer referred to the skulls at the burial site as “skulls of pagans.”

To safeguard the cultural heritage site, Sagada Mayor Felicito Dula, as reported by local media, issued an executive order mandating visitors to pay the fee, which will be collected at the Church of St. Mary the Virgin along Mission Road in Sagada.

As stated in the executive order, the fee will cover access not only to the hanging coffins but also to other sites within the ancestral domain, including burial grounds, dap-ays (traditional sacred centers of the Igorots), patpatayan and babawiyan (ritual sites), as well as other areas established through customary practices.

It can be recalled that a certain Crist Briand visited the sacred site on February 23. As part of his content, he handled human skulls and showed them on camera, claiming they belonged to “pagans” from earlier times in the town.

Although the video was eventually taken down, it drew widespread criticism, particularly from residents who felt disrespected. They emphasized that Sagada’s ancestors were deeply spiritual long before Christianization, and that labeling them as “pagans” was inappropriate.

Meanwhile, Elder Ireneus Tauli of the Central Sagada Indigenous Peoples Community (CSIPS) said the cultural fee had already been decided upon in 2022 and has since been used to support the operations of the area’s 12 dap-ays.

The fee was later formalized in 2023 through a Sangguniang Bayan resolution, granting the CSIPS—particularly the Ganduyan dap-ays—the authority to collect cultural fees from visitors to sacred sites, including the Paytokan Hanging Coffins.